DHAKA – Hundreds of desperate Rohingya Muslims are still pouring over theMyanmar border into Bangladesh every week, bringing harrowing accounts oftorture and murder, six months after a military crackdown sparked themassive refugee crisis.
One of the recent arrivals, Nur Mohammad, said his village in Myanmar’sRakhine state was surrounded by Buddhist vigilantes for days before theywere allowed to leave.
“The Moghs (Buddhists) torched our houses, kept us confined and starving,”Mohammad said. “Villages are razed to the ground. We walked for daysthrough mountains to reach here.”
Thirty-year-old Enayetullah was among the 200 Rohingya who crossed the Nafriver into Bangladesh on Friday.
Most of his neighbours had left earlier, part of a 700,000-strong Rohingyaexodus since August 25, leaving behind desolate and burned-out villages.
“We stayed all these months hoping the situation will be fine. But inrecent weeks, security forces have taken away our young men. If they abduct10, only one returns,” Enayetullah told AFP.
Enayetullah also accused Myanmar security forces of torching his shop,prompting him and his three brothers to flee their home in Mognaparavillage near the town of Buthidaung.
The military crackdown in the north of Rakhine has been termed “ethniccleansing” by the United Nations and the United States.
While Bangladesh and Myanmar talk of repatriating the refugees, the influxcontinues. Some days 200 people cross the border, on others a few dozenmake the perilous journey. More than 2,500 have entered the overflowingcamps in Bangladesh so far in February.
Hundreds of Rohingya villages have been torched in the crackdown, accordingto refugees and monitoring groups. Human Rights Watch said Friday thatanother 55 villages have been razed since November.
The Rohingya have been systematically stripped of their legal rights inmainly Buddhist Myanmar in recent decades and face rampant discrimination.
Myanmar denies seeking to eradicate the minority but refuses to give UNinvestigators access to an area where thousands of Rohingya are believed tohave been killed.
In November Bangladesh and Myanmar signed an agreement to repatriate some750,000 Rohingya over two years. Last week Dhaka sent a list of 8,000 namesto Myanmar for verification.
– No going back –
But Rohingya leaders bluntly refuse to return. The UN says anyone who goesback must be a volunteer, while Myanmar shows no sign of accepting theRohingya as full citizens.
“If they send us back, we’ll be tortured or killed. We would rather bekilled here in Bangladesh. Here, at least I’ll get a Muslim burial,” saidMohammad Elias, whose group has staged protests against repatriation inrecent weeks.
According to the UN, since the repatriation deal was signed on November 23,nearly 70,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh through different routesin and near Cox’s Bazar district.
“Those who came in recent days said they were tortured,” Mainuddin Khan,Teknaf town police chief, told AFP.
Some Rohingya who remained in Rakhine’s three main Muslim districts saidthe situation has improved in parts of the region, but life in the emptyvillages was unbearable.
Maun Maung Tin, a Rohingya from Maungdaw, said it was impossible to buy orsell goods and they were afraid to complain to authorities.
“The new refugees say that they feel unsafe, threatened and harassed athome, in villages that are often abandoned,” said Kate Nolan, coordinatorfor Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Bangladesh.
Aid agencies say there is still a critical risk of life-threateningdiseases in the overcrowded camps in Bangladesh, where most refugees livein flimsy tarpaulin-and-bamboo huts.
A new threat looms with the cyclone season that starts in April. Themassive storms have killed hundreds of thousands along the coast in thepast five decades.
“We are concerned about the nature of the shelters, how robust they are andif they are really prepared and equipped for the heavy rains,” said MSF’sNolan.
Despite the cyclone risk, the Rohingya say they are unwilling to go back.
“At least there is adequate food here and there is no one to kill ortorture you,” said Enayetullah. – APP/AFP